Saturday, 25 October 2014

UGANDA - The cost of corruption
is enormous. According to the 2005 World Bank survey, Uganda loses an estimated
sh510b a year through corruption, while the Global Integrity Report of 2006 put
the figure at about sh1 trillion, which was about half of the annual budget
then – Reference the New vision – Experts offer solutions to corruption.

In the Independent of Friday, 19th
April 2013, Haggai Matsiko in the article:Uganda, Sudan enter arms race - Museveni doubles military
expenditure, cuts education budget, he writes: “In the 2013/14 budget about ten
new taxes are to be introduced partly to finance the Ministry of Defence vote
which is slated to hit an historic Shs 1 trillion, according to the national
Budget Framework Paper (BFP) 2013/2014-2017/2018.In the past,
Museveni has spent even more than Shs 1 trillion onthe army. He spent Shs 1.8 trillion off the budget on Su-30MK ex-Russian
jets in 2011 alone. However, the budget for Defence in the BFP has always been
smaller—last year it was Shs 649 billion and Shs 946 billion in the final
budget.But this year, in the BFP, the
defence budget is a staggering Shs1,045.9 billion representing a 10% increment
from last year’s Shs 946 billion.While,
the increment is under Shs 100 billion, in real terms that figure excludes
monies accrued to Defence from external sources. The figure also does not
include classified expenditure that is usually Defence’s biggest component.
Because of national security, the army does not reveal certain expenditures.

Daniel
Kalinaki wrote in The EastAfrican of Saturday, June 7, under: Uganda borrows to
fund its military in South Sudan – “The
government of Uganda has raised its domestic borrowing ceiling as it seeks to
raise money to plug a budget deficit and, among other expenditures, support its
military intervention in South Sudan. Central
bank sources said that the domestic borrowing ceiling has been raised by Ush675
billion ($259 million), from Ush1.04 trillion ($400 million), to allow the
government to plug holes in its revenues and provide for the growing costs of
the army’s activities in the region. The Ministry of Defence has asked
parliament to approve a supplementary budget of Ush170 billion ($65 million)
“for regional security,” part of which, MPs say, is meant to support the
deployment of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces in the neighbouring country.
“My suspicion, and that of many Members of Parliament, is that this money has
gone to support the war in South Sudan,” Kyadondo East MP Ssemujju Ibrahim
Nganda of the opposition FDC party told The EastAfrican. The
Ministry of Defence’s request is part of Ush482.5 billion ($185 million) that
the government is seeking as supplementary funding this financial year and is
the first glimpse of the financial cost of Uganda’s involvement in the conflict
in South Sudan”.

In
the Observer of Wednesday, July 16, 2014,
Sadab Kitatta Kaaya wrote in the article: A costly
President: “According to the policy statement, the president is expected
to spend Shs 92.6bn to attend 70 planned community functions (any informal
functions like fundraisings not listed as state functions) in a year under the
community outreach and welfare programme. This also includes payment of school
fees to an unspecified number of students, and support to the needy.Museveni is also expected to spend at least
Shs 27.6bn to host 60 delegations from districts under a vote for mass
mobilization towards poverty reduction, peace and development. The president
will spend another Shs 5.9bn to attend six international trade meetings and to
officiate at both local and international trade-related functions.This is in addition to Shs 10.7bn allocated
to his foreign visits to 20 countries, hosting 15 heads of state and attending
18 regional and international meetings. The budget request also carries a
monthly request of Shs 53m to cover presidential burial expenses. The burial
expenses are spread in six different votes which give the president a
consolidated monthly sum of Shs 35.7m to spend while his Vice President Edward
Kiwanuka Ssekandi has a monthly sum of Shs 17.3m.State House will also spend Shs 13.05bn on
procuring a specialized presidential vehicle at Shs 800m and Shs 5.2bn on
buying 32 support vehicles. In 2012, President Museveni unveiled two new
limousine vehicles, whose cost press reports put variously at between Shs 6bn
and Shs 10bn”.

The
above picture is just to show you a bit of the extravagance the NRM Government
is involved in.We must appreciate that
we are a poor country, but with resources that can see to its development
including manpower.If we are elected to
office, we shall improve the welfare of the category under consideration
through the following measures:

1.Shall be entitled to free
fresher courses to keep them abreast with the challenges and innovations in
their vacations.

2.Salary shall be reviewed
given the inflationary trends and the cost of living.

3.Shall get to see housing a
priority at each school.

4.Shall start free post primary
education for the biological children of the teachers, when at least one vocational
as well as secondary school gets operational in each region of Uganda as shall
be agreed.

5.Shall ensure that each under
the category being considered belongs to a Housing Cooperative out of which
he/she will make monthly contribution to eventually get assistance to construct
a house for retirement.

6.Shall ensure that they belong
to a Medical Insurance such that each of them can get free medical services.

7.Have their children entitles
to the Student Loan Scheme as revised.

8.There shall be motivational
rewards to those who excel in their work.

9.Subsidized motor cycles to be
availed to those who may be interested so that they are helped with transport
from home.

10.Get consent of teachers
before they are transferred, and that such transfers should be within the area
of interest or home area as may be convenient to the concerned.

11.Put in place hard ship allowance
that is reasonable to be able to attract staff to the hard to work in areas.